Forgive me, but I'm drooling over your lovely home!! Love the stone work and I've wanted carriage doors for awhile...so I'm a bit biased in my opinion.

I think the first set of carriage doors you picked would look lovely, especially if you chose a color to blend in with your stonework and trim colors. I think I would prefer that over trying to match the stain of the front door. Just my 2 cents...but again, your home is just beautiful! :)

Beautiful home...love the stone. I like the first and second ones best in a color to match your front door. Your place would look awesome with any of those doors.

Before I even looked at your choices, I immediately thought stained garage doors (like in your 1st picture) would be gorgeous.

Laurie

Stained for sure! The ones with the windows! What a beautiful home!!!

i think carriage style stained garage doors would look fantastic... only caution is tho maintaining the stained doors. we had stained garage doors that faced the south and the sun really beat on them and ruined the finish. we had to restain/protect every year. a northern or eastern orientation would be fine tho.

What a beautiful home! The stone is terrific. I like the second doors with your home -- subtle & classy. Understatement is all your lovely home needs.

A stained door would look best, but busybee3 brings up an excellent point about maintenance. So just to give you an idea, here's what your home would look like if you painted the doors the same color as the trim. It looks nice too:

I'm shopping for garage doors myself. Mind if I ask about what kind and what brands you're considering? Thanks.

Forgot to mention that I think the garage doors with windows (choice #1) would look best on your house, especially since they would mimic the look of the grids on your windows.

Stain or paint, either way it will be beautiful! :)

Linley,
Here are a couple mock-ups. The color isn't quite right on the last wooden carriage style, but it shows the need to get the right color. I'm torn between which I like best. The first blends in better with the front door, but the 2nd really looks nice with the stone.

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I like hilltop's option #2. You can do a steel garage door in a carriage style painted in a color that nicely complements the stone.

It's going to look fantastic! Cute house!

Gee, I don't know now...
The dark stains kinda overwhelm the house. Think I prefer the softer colors.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm glad you guys like the stone. My DH thought I was crazy when I first suggested it but the house is on a beautiful piece of property and I just couldn't find any paint color that gave it the same feeling.

I was going to ask about windows. We have a big window on the side so we don't need the garage windows for light but I was thinking they might help to break up the solid garage door.

I was planning on going with Fatezzi doors. They are faux wood doors made from a polymer material but from the reviews and photos I've read they are very realistic. They are also marketed by Clopay under the Canyon Ridge line.

I was originally going to go with real wood but I was turned off by the maintenance issues and price. The Fatezzi doors run around $2000-2500 vs. $5000 + for the real wood doors.

Here is a link that might be useful: fatezzi garage doors

Hilltop - thanks so much for the mockups. I'm still torn. I like the look of the stained doors but they do seem to dominate while the painted ones seem to draw the eye more to the front door.

Is there any way to mock up stained ones with windows?

Thanks, linley, for the link. Those doors look great. I was looking into Jeld-Wen composites, but the Fatezzis look nice too. Wonder if I can get them in Connecticut?

Yes, glass would help break up the mass. Is that real stone or a composite stone? You did a fantastic job upgrading the look of your home.

Awm03- Fatezzi sells direct. Just give them a call. They are very helpful and will send samples and give you a quote. They can also do some custom things. They ship the doors to you and then you need to hire someone to install them.

Clopay has licensed the door and sells it under the Canyon Ridge label but I haven't gotten a qoute from them yet to see how it compares to buying direct. I haven't seen the Fatezzi doors in person but a few people on the Building a Home forum have bought them and seem happy.

Where I live, they price out similar to carriage house style steel doors but quite a bit less than the composite doors.

The stone is a cultured stone product from Eldorado stone called Hillstone. I looked at several other products and at least for this type of look it seemed the most realistic.

Here is a link that might be useful: Eldorado stone

Interesting. Thanks so much, linley. Frankly, I don't care for steel carriage house garage doors. They look like they were stamped out of a machine and are a poor imitation. The details just aren't crisp as the composites or real wood doors.

Here are a couple views. Again, the colors not right, but it gives you the idea.
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I think you have a really beautiful home. Including windows in the garage doors as a way to break up the expanse would be fantastic. I really like the idea of matching the windows to the square window panes on the rest of your home. In terms of color I like the idea of matching the stain (or "stain" if it's faux wood) to your front door or painting the doors the same color as your trim. Your front door is still very prominent (and welcoming) with the large porch. Also, I think the stone facing is absolutely lovely.

One more suggestion from me (if you can tolerate it - LOL).

From looking at Clopay's website, if you choose a paintable surface, you can always do a two-tone treatment with the paint. Perhaps a "griege" color for the background of the doors and a "putty" color (similar to your trim to highlight the details of the doors - whether it is the X pattern or the sloped part of the door trim - if you know what I mean? Maybe that would help tie in both the stone colors and the trim.

Let's face it, since you have 3 garage doors, it is alot of surface area, so maybe breaking it up with more than 1 color would work?

awm03 - As a follow up, I called the local Clopay dealer to get a quote on the Canyon Ridge doors - 5,000+ (gulp...) I can't find any great difference except perhaps the option of windows. I'm not sure if you can get those from Fatezzi direct.

Whoa! Guess we won't be getting Canyon Ridge doors. We don't want windows anyway. Fatezzi would be worth getting even if we plan to paint them. Thanks so much, linley.

i think those doors look nice.... i prefer the top ones, because they are less busy. i might even deemphasize the downward slanted lines by not painting them the contrast color... i think the busier ones detract from your stone--would be more suitable for a plain stucco or cedar board facaded house. the color choices look good!

You have a gorgeous home! Of all the choices shown above, I like the 2nd to last the best (the 1st Wayne Dalton pic). I don't know why exactly, but it just looks the best to my eye. My 2nd choice would be the 2nd pic posted at 11:38 on 4/20.

Yes, I was worried they might be too busy but after looking at so many possibilities you start to lose perspective. Here's a simpler variation as you mentioned.

i personally think that last pic looks great! your doorway arch is mirrored, the window panes are mirrored, the double window look is mirrored, colors are nice, the beautiful stone is the emphasis... i like them!

I agree - that last picture looks terrific!!

That very last version is the best. Agree with everything busybee said.

Ooh, I love the very last one, too!

The last ones for sure! We got Wayne Dalton doors and are happy with them. You might read reviews on their I-drive opener. We read that they failed alot, so we went with the Chamberlain belt drive opener and it is very good and quiet. Beautiful home and setting!

I think you have found the perfect one in the last pic. It looks great with your stone house.

Is the garage visualizer program on the internet? We will soon be getting to that stage on our home build and I would love to use something like that to help me make a decision.

I think it's great that so many talented GW'rs like hilltop provide the great feedback and mock ups!

Last pic for sure...arches compliment front door as previous poster said...its a winner!

I agree w/the others -- I like the last ones the best of all!

That last one looks SHARP! Very nice house!

Yeah! Looks like we have a winner. Thanks to everyone for their help. I don't think I would have arrived at this design without your suggestions and feedback.

sc-kathy: I used the Visualizer from Wayne Dalton. Unlike some of the talented folks here, I have zero photoshop skills but this program was fairly easy and flexible. They have a little dropper tool that lets you use any color from your photo for the garage door. So, I was able to copy the color from our front door for the main panel of the door and use a color from the roof for the trim on the garage door. The other major garage companies have similar programs, but this one was the best and most flexible overall.

The last one looks perfect!!

Linley, what did your house look like before you had it refaced and was that a huge undertaking?